Binkys

For those of you familiar with the big Boo in CA. You will remember that she was very rarely uncovered. Her pink skin was way to vulnerable in the hot desert sun. She grew used to this since her only shelter was a tin roof covering on legs in all but our Valley Center set up. She went through 1 and a half fly sheets a year it seemed. Here our gal gets to go naked all the time! Its winter after all, much to her delight! She didn't even fluff up her woolly mammoth type coat until it got below 40 degrees with a stiff breeze. Even then she was quite content in the sun. Cuervo on the other hand is cold. He has a longish coat for his norm from Ca but its not cutting the mustard. In fact several weeks ago we had a 71 degree day with a warm soaking rain. He came in shivering violently. On went the wool cooler and down went a warm bran mash. So it seems my two horses have swapped needs. Now its his turn to wear clothes most of the time. In his trunk he has a rain sheet with no insulation, a lite, weatherproof, puffy blanket with minimal insulation and a heavy duty winterized rug that I purchased when we thought we where heading north to Or. So of course what does he need? Why, a medium weight weather proof rug. From what I have read in the various catalogues a medium weight blanket is 200 grams of poly fill insulation and is suitable down to 35 degrees with a full coat. OK, but what if it heats up to the mid 50s? Which it has been known to do here on the coast after a chilling, rainy morning. It also goes the other way with equal speed and propensity. Almost every one has heard the saying "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes". Well, I gotta say, this place is the closet I've come to this saying ringing true since Boulder CO. My head is fairly spinning with choices of high tech, high priced , high falutin', choices! Many years ago in MD, my standard rule was "keep 'em dry and keep 'em natural". That meant everyone had a good rain sheet and a stable blanket to make me feel better on bitter nights. This combined with a very modified trace clip seemed to fit the bill just fine. It seems, my sensitive, light bodied, boy is bucking the norm. Next week arrives a brand new, temperature controlling, mid weight, moisture wicking,self righting,coat polishing, rain proof, wind breaking blanky of the ages. Boo is looking awfully smug, my guess is she took a lot of ribbing in Ca for her outfits.

Pony fun!

Cuervo and I have been fooling with a few fun things so I thought I would record the progress. He's such a ham..... We built on what I discovered during our trailer loading session before our grand exodus east. But I didnt like the "cue" so back to the round pen and low and behold we got a good start on our "levade" on a recall. I simply stopped him with more energy on his way to me at a canter. From there I could stop him and then ask for the energy to go up and now we have a pretty good cue that nets me the same idea with out the round pen, halter or speed. Here is the succession, if you will, Don't you love that his hair lands last? I'll have you know he was all beautified that morning, then I had to go to lessons and I returned to Mr. tanglemane mudsides!
















The tire work is more challenging as our boy can jump over, around, laterally across...well, you get the picture. Slowing it down was the challenge. My next goal is to load him onto it backwards, then work on various pairs of feet remaining on the tire and then maybe levade on the tire!? who knows.... What ever we find fun! Thanks to Timmie for being the frosted over photographer. As you can tell by my michelan man look it was COLD out.

"hangin" with the horses.

and then the lens fogged up....

dipilatory needed!

whatcha doin?

"sneaking" up...

ah.... the good old days!

A good friend forwarded me this YouTube vid :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWd_r2sOPhs

I in turn shared it with some riding buddies that I thought would relate! But the more I thought about it the more I needed to share it with everyone. Not only for its comedy, but for its sweetness. Can you remember the days when 8 plus hours at the barn was to short? Can you remember braiding tails for fun? Jumping horse jumps and doing flying changes OFF horses? The adventures we had....I raced in the derby, I steeple chased, I went to the Olympics and won the Tevis cup. All from the back of my 14 hand welsh /TB cross pony. These imaginary adventures blended right in with the actual adventures which sometimes found me walking home, brambles in my hair and dirt on my breeches. It was grand!

Somewhere between there and here things change beyond our control and something is lost. I once credited John Lyons for giving me back my joy in horses. He did and then some. But Ive realized something recently and that is that the joy and the fun and the adventure may get redefined, may get side tracked and may get dusty from disuse but its still there. So many of us remember fondly our childhood horse experiences. Its why most woman get back into horses when they "grow up". Every last one of the gals that I meet don't understand why its not the same and why their childhood pony outshines their current mount in brains and brawn. Gals, Its not the horses that have changed( well, outside of the fact that we can afford the ones we drooled over as kids! wink wink)Its us. Try this: laugh when your horse does something unexpected, braid flowers into his mane, stop during your ride and let your horse graze while you take in the scenery. Imagine you have wings on your next canter, hug him and kiss his warm muzzle. Then when no one is looking gallop yourself(sans horse) over a few cross rails, throw in a buck after a high one and laugh till your sides hurt. Our dreams don't have to die when we attain them and they don't have to become more grand. We where never happier than when our pony's where scraggly,wild and unruly. I will cherish those days and endeavour to create more just like them!

A sport for all ages!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqVLY8YfbEo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygnKD7Z2E0A



This video is great and gives me all kinds of ideas for my confidence course. The horses expression is pretty good through out too which just makes this little clip better. In related video on YouTube, they have some of the obstacles broken down to the teaching level. Very cool. When do you think we will see this at shows?

The second vid is one great trail course! Love the little guy and the riders eye view! Cuervo would love it!!!

Be like Mike......

,One of the perks of my job is getting to meet all manner of horse people. Ones who have been astride a horse since their exit from the womb and those who one day, right smack dab in the throws of middle age, up and decide to get a horse and get to riding. I enjoy all manner of horse person, especially when they fall into that category I can only label as "characters" Don't read me wrong here, a character is a term of positive distinction in my book. I usually learn my best lessons from a "character". Lessons I use to help the next person who calls with a horse dilemma. One of my favorite "characters" is a man we'll call Mike. His take on some of his horses behaviours was not quite what most horse folks would have agreed with. That being said, after further consideration, I began to wonder if Mike was onto something and the rest of us where off base.

Mike took his two horses everywhere to ride, an unusual thing for a relatively new horse owner to do. His attitude about it was one of hoping his horses, like his family dogs, would enjoy the new scenery and appreciate the outing. And by golly I think they did. Not because his horses where so different from all of our horses but because of Mikes attitude. When we would meet for our weekly lesson he would tell me of his various adventures that week, and while I shook my head in amazement at some of the "fun" they had had, I noticed that the language mike used in retelling the strories was so positive from beginning to end. I couldn't help but believe a grand time was had by all. For instance, as many of us have experienced when taking stable buddies on rides away from home. Theres a good amount of "talking" that goes on between them when one gets just a bit to far out of range of the other. Most of us would say "He was yelling his head off for his friend." Or "The screaming back and forth was getting on my nerves." Not Mike! He described it as "they CHEERED for each other!" I have never heard horses calling for each other referred to as "cheering". But because he believed this to be the case, He was not distracted or disturbed by it and had a pleasant ride. His horses picking up on his vibe, settled down and enjoyed it too. Another Mike original is describing his horses prancing after a particularly challenging obstacle as the horse having pride in his success of tackling that obstacle. Well why not? Haven't we heard it said time and time again that attitude is everything? I think Mike has proven it is.

odds and ends

proof boo is worth $10!

I was out today making an addition to my horses confidence course. It consisted of two truck tires filled in with DG. I figured it was would be good for all kinds of fun things, like pony pedestals, weave patterns and a nice place for me to sit or stand out of the fire ants and occasional muck. It was shoulder breaking work! No less than 6 wheel barrows full each. Ugh, when did I become too old for this? In any case, once I was done, I gladly took a seat on the front one and had some major horse company. Cuervo, sweet boy, just has to see it all (and taste it all) , all the time! We played lip games, had lots of muzzle smooches, ear rubs, one pretty prolonged head nuggy from him to me before it was nap time and he curled up right by my feet. This was first! It was still a bit nippy , so I scooched off my muck boots and rubbed my socked feet on his warm fur. He and I where all kinds of bonding when Boo came over for her share and broke up the party. After she clumped right over where I was sitting( no tire trepidation from her), roused the dozing Cuervo, determined there was no snacks involved in all the canoodling. She then ambled off to suck up the last of the hay. I was thrilled by this little exchange between the boy and I. I realized we had never had an opportunity to hang out like that as I haven't made it a priority to hang out with my horses in their fields for years. Sounds funny doesn't it? I LOVE my horses! I LOVE watching horses! Heck, I make a living with horses and yet I have forgotten how to engage this very gratifying skill. When I was a kid, I could sit for hours on a paddock fence or a jump standard just being with a herd of horses, whether they where mine or not. In Md. after the horses had eaten a nice little spot in the center of a round bale, I'd wander out there on clear, cold fall nights in my jacket and jammies and climb up in the center of the bale in my pasture with horses eating all around me and listen to horses breathe and chew...It was sooooo therapeutic! Boo chewing in a darkened stable got me through my divorce, I swear! Any way, I have been on cloud nine all day long. I know in our busy lives, we get carried away with stuff. I've been carried away for years! Today though, Ive made a commitment to nurturing this need. I will be out there hanging with the ponies as much as I can, just being, not grooming , not training, not talking on the phone or reading a book. I'll be 100 percent there, hanging out and being horse like for a time. It may sound very "horse whispery" of me, maybe even a little "gawani-like" but I don't mind, I'm not out there to work or teach or pick. Im there for the therapeutic effect that taking a little time to just be with our favorite creatures on earth affords. Try it, you'll remember too!